Laos - Luang Prabang

Flying into Luang Prabang in Laos was almost like landing in Dunedin.  It was a small airport, and quite new - quite a step up from Hanoi.  Indeed the whole town was a step up, it was a lot smaller, quieter and cleaner.  Very touristy, but for good reason, it was a very cool place.  We stayed for the first 3 nights  a bit of a hike out of the CBD but they had bikes we could use and regular pick ups and drop offs.  We didn't have anything planned when we arrived but it soon became apparent we would easily fill in our time.

Luang Prabang is located on a river junction, where the  Nam Khan flows into the  Mekong.  This was a bit confusing for a start but once we got a map we figured out what was going on.

Dragon boaters on the Nam Khan

We were very fortunate with our timing, there were paper lanterns everywhere as the weekend coming up was a big festival.  Luang Prabang is well known for its paper and the lanterns were amazing.  Perhaps not quite as amazing as the night markets, talk about food!  Stacks of it lined up to be barbecued, or you could fill your plate with salads and veges for about $2.  We stuck with the BBQ, some grilled meat and a beer Lao - superb.

BBQ - pick your stick...

Paper lanterns

Longboat on the Mekong

 We did a cooking class with Tamarind cooking school and it started with a trip to the markets with our guide who pointed out and explained all the various vegetables and various other unique ingredients.

Luang Prabang market

Eggplants and herbs

Rice steaming baskets and various dried  fungi

Ummm, pass, dried fish and birds I think

Mekong river weed - eat it like a snack, quite nice

Eggs

Rice of various descriptions

Catfish

The meat hall

Chook heads and guts

Frogs

Eels

Cooking school, rice steaming in the background

 The cooking school was great, we made quite a feast.  Not too many odd ingredients except for the buffalo mince dish which had buffalo tripe and bile in it - most passed on the bile but not us, when in Luang Prabang...

Lots of pounding at cooking school, mortar and pestle were central.

Buffalo bile mince dish in the middle, eggplant dip in the bowl on the left, lemongrass stalk stuffed with chicken, steamed fish in banana leaf and sticky rice, followed but a purple sweet sticky rice dessert (not pictured)

Back at the BBQ - eating an unidentified bird.

Breakfast at Thongbay Guesthouse overlooking the Nam Khan river - would recommend this place highly.

Looking over the Nam Khan from our front deck

The next day we hired bikes and a guide and went out to one of the nearby waterfalls.  We didn't really know what to expect, we'd heard there were elephants and we were supposed to get a ride on one.

Cycling out to the waterfall, rice then pineapple plantation in the background

All geared up to go zip lining above the waterfalls

We started the ziplining well above the waterfalls, by the time we made it down this far, we'd mastered it.

The zip line weren't that long, but they were high enough to be a bit freaky at the start

But great fun.

We had seen the elephants on our way in and we were due a ride on one.  Our mahout directed the elephant out and then jumped off to let us ride it back, he just walked ahead calling it and taking photos for us.  We have more photos of us on elephants that the rest of the trip.

We didn't have quite the control as the mahout, and our elephant was hungry

Hmmm, seems to be heading the wrong way

Under control

Kelley taking the elephant in for a paddle

Thirsty work

Back to base

We shouted him a feed

But others got in on the action

Ok, this is where you almost get time lapse photography, but it was the coolest part.  We'd seen people take an elephant for a swim when we arrived and it looked like fun.  But we didn't quite expect it to be quite like this...

Taking one for a dip

Whoa...where did our elephant go... we didn't see this earlier!

Oh, there he is

A treat for not drowning

Getting rather deep

Lost the elephant again!

..and back again, it was getting rather hard to hang on.  Each time he went under it felt like he was also rolling over and we'd often end up completely submerged as well.

In control again

And gone again...

And this time he got rid of me

But you could scramble on again when we went back under

By this time quite a crowd of startled onlookers had gathered

We were getting a bit bedraggled, but was a fantastic experience

Relaxing with a swim under the waterfall

Our hosts at Thongbay Guesthouse were fantastic and encouraged us to get up early on our last day to join the weekly procession of the monks through town.  They took us in and gave us sticky rice and chocolates to give to the monks as they walk past.  There were a lot of monks, and a lot of people out given it was festival time.

Getting ready to donate to the monks

Some had come prepared - clearly the highlight of their year!